It's all about NeeNee and Pop

Lately, it seems like so many of my conversations with Inara revolve around Grandma NeeNee and Pop. When they were here last month, Inara picked up two sayings: wubba wubba and yippee skippy. Every time I use these sayings, Inara gets a big smile and says "Pop" for wubba wubba and "NeeNee" for yippe skippy. It's so funny that she instantly associates these sayings with my parents. This past week she has started watching the cartoon Backyardigans, and as soon as the theme song comes on, she giggles and says "PayPee" (Spanky). When my brother was here, he played a couple episodes for her on his laptop and now she loves the show. The second she hears the theme song, she gets all excited and calls out PayPee. It's hilarious.

Lately, she's become obsessed with finding airplanes in the sky. It's a game we play when in the car: lets look for cows, horses, dogs, bicycles, birds and airplanes. She must have super sonic hearing because even indoors she can hear the airplanes outside and yells out "airpane." I figured why not start telling her about flying and airplanes, so I've been telling her that mommy, daddy, and Inara are going in an airplane to see NeeNee, Pop and PayPee soon. She totally gets it because the other night I was putting her to bed, and I asked her what are we going to do in the morning, trying to get her to say go to My Gym. Instead, she said "airpane NeeNee Pop." I asked, "Do you want to go on an airplane to see NeeNee and Pop tomorrow?" She responded with an exuberant "Yeah!" I couldn't stop laughing because one she understands that we're going on an airplane to see the family but also because she misses my parents and brother. When I ask her if she misses NeeNee, Pop and PayPee, she gets a big sulking lip and closes her eyes. That's her way of show sadness.

I'm telling you she's getting way too smart for her age. The other morning I was reading email on my laptop when she came over, pointed and said, "Pop pewper." I was shocked. I asked, "Do you want to talk to Pop on mommy's computer?" "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah," she said with an vigorous head shake. I had to reward that, so I called my parents' house, but nobody was home. I called Pop on his cell, and he told me they were all out and about, so we'd have to skype later in the afternoon. I, of course, had to try to explain that to a 20 month old. It ended with a lot of sobbing and whining. When she woke from her nap that day, the first thing she wanted, even before snacks, was to call NeeNee and Pop on pewper. She was so excited to skype with them that afternoon. When she talks to them on the webcam, she leans in and gives kisses and obligingly performs for them. I know my parents love it.

As I've mentioned before, I can never go to the bathroom without an audience. This morning she came into the bathroom, gave me her usual "Hi Mommy," then went to the guest room door and said "NeeNee Pop." I asked her if NeeNee and Pop slept in the guest room. "Yeah," she said and then opened the door. When there was nobody inside, she came out with a sad expression and asked, "NeeNee? Pop?" I felt so sad because she looked thoroughly disappointed to see the room empty. I explained that we would see NeeNee and Pop soon when we go on an airplane and see them in OC, and we can play in Pop's pool. She seemed to approve this explanation and went on her merry way.

Although my family may live hundreds of miles away, Inara sure does know and love her NeeNee, Pop, PayPee and everyone else I talk about back in CA. This summer will be a blast for her to get to see everyone she asks about every day. Only 2 months left til we go in an aipane and see you all. Love you guys. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Is she really getting this old?

This week Inara will turn 20 months. I can't believe it. She is getting to be quite the big girl now and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I love her being my baby girl, but she's showing signs of independence and an opinion, which is both good and bad. But she is still very much a mommy's girl. After the past 2 weeks of crying out for daddy all day long, tonight she wanted only mommy. Shawn tried to sit down next to us as we were reading, and she yelled out no. Shawn then asked do you want daddy to leave, and she shook her head yes. The rest of the night it was just the two of us. Guess she really wanted it to be Mother's Day.

Our bedtime rituals are changing every day it seems like. I think it has to do with the fact that she is taking long naps during the day now. She's been averaging 2 hours most days. Weekends I noticed are a bit of a challenge because daddy is home and we're out and about more, but for the most part, I get at least 90 minutes to 2 full hours. This means that she isn't going to bed until 8pm though. That's kinda tough because I like to have some time to finish up projects and unwind. I'll have to figure out a new routine for myself I guess. When I put Inara to bed, she now wants me to rub her back. It's cute but kinda painful for me to hunch over her crib and rub her back for too long. I swear the sacrifices we make for our kids. Tonight I rubbed her back for 20 minutes. She was so cute laying there, and if I moved away, she opened her eyes and said mommy back. So I obliged. It totally reminded me of when Nana would rub my arms, back and face to help relax me to sleep. Too bad I still can't get my back rubbed to sleep.

She's getting to be quite the smart little girl too. The other day we were playing, and I started counting: one...Then she said two, tree. I was so shocked. She has started learning to count. I realize it's because when we are playing, particularly running or going down slides, I always say, "OK. Inara, ready. One. Two. Three. Go." I'm guessing she's picking up on it and learning how to count. I've also been going through letters with her a lot. I show her a D and ask her whose name starts with this letter. She then replies, "Daddy." She has several letters down already: M is for Mommy, P is for Pop, K is for Kristi.

Inara loves to do puzzles lately. We have an assortment of wooden peg puzzles as they are called, and she has mastered putting the shapes, letters, vehicles, animals in their appropriate place. From these puzzles, I've also started teaching her we get milk from cows and eggs from chickens. Tonight, I was watching her do the puzzles and decided to challenge her with two at once. Successfully was able to put two puzzles together simultaneously. This was tough because we have two that have farm animals, and she figured out which cow went on which puzzle, etc. I gave her big hugs and kisses after each one to praise her. She smiled and clapped for herself too. I was so super impressed that I even called her a genius. Hey, positive praise is important, right?

We have a new ritual when in the car too. Whenever we get to an area of large open land, she yells out, "Mommy, moo." This means mommy lets look for the cows and horses. We also look out the windows to see if we can spot beep beeps (that's Inara's tweet tweet for birds), airplanes, bikes, and dogs, aka. doggies, ruff ruffs, and Abby's (most dogs are often called Abby's after Uncle Thane's dog Abby who she now asks for all the time). As for airplanes, the kid amazes me when she can hear the faintest sound of an airplane off in the distance. We can even be in the house, and she'll suddenly say, "mommy, airplane" and I'll have to listen really close to hear the airplane outside. At least we know her hearing is perfect.

As I've mentioned before, she loves being mommy's helper. Well, this week Inara started helping me water the flowers and plants outside. I got her a little watering can at Target, and she now follows me as I water the pots in the yard. She says, "Mommy wawa plant." And I say, "Yes, can Inara please help me?" She then points to herself and says, "Wawa." That's her way of saying Inara wants to wawa too. I love this new routine we have. It's the cutest thing ever. I remember when I was little that I would help my mom water the lawn in the backyard, and we'd look for the frogs. This is one of my fondest childhood memories, and I love that I'm starting a similar routine with my daughter. Too weird how things come full circle like this.

This wouldn't be a blog without a horror story to round out the image of my independent, opinionated daughter. She is now starting to voice her opinion much more about things. I was hoping this wouldn't start until she hit 2, but alas, it is happening now. The other day I grabbed a sweatshirt out of the closet to put on her, and she started yelling no. I asked her what was wrong, and she pointed to another sweatshirt in the closet. I asked, "Do you want to wear the brown one instead?" She happily shook her head yes. Oh boy. Now she's telling me what she wants to wear. She has done similar things with shoes and dresses. Also, I will start putting her hair up in a ponytail, and she'll say, "No mommy, two." "Do you want 2 ponytails, Inara?" I again get an exuberant yeah, yeah, yeah. I can see many a disagreements in the near future. Oh boy.

The other funny but scary story I have to share is about the biggest fit Inara has ever thrown. The other day we were in the kitche when I noticed she had gotten a hold of a chapstick and started putting it on her lips, then her cheeks, nose, etc. I told her no and took it away from her. She threw a holy terror. Stomped her feet. Started walking away from me. Looked back at me and screamed. Continued walking to the cupboard and then put her arm up on the door and rested her head on it as she continued to scream and cry. Oh the drama. I stood there in awe at the spectacle that was taking place all over a chapstick. I was angry with her but found myself laughing at the same time. Could my baby girl be starting the acting out expected of a 2 year old? Again, oh boy, do I have a handful to deal with now? The best medicine for me to survive what's coming (besides a daily pitcher of margaritas) is to read back through blogs like this to remember how truly amazing this little girl is, regardless of the days I want to leave her on the doorstep for my mom to come get her.

Daddy? Daddy? Daddy!

I believe Inara has officially begun the daddy stage. She has been asking for him a lot more than usual ,and the second he gets home, it's as if mommy doesn't exist. Trust me, I'm happy to get a lil break from the never-ending mommy mode. Along with this new stage, Inara did two things she's never done before this week. First on Monday, when Shawn was leaving for work, Inara followed him to the garage door, put her hands and head on it, and cried "Daddy! Daddy!" I've never seen her do this as the only time she has cried when someone leaves was when I have left. It broke my heart to see her so sad, but I also thought it was funny to watch and so innocent and sweet. Then Wednesday, when Shawn was leaving for work, he picked her up to give her a hug and kiss. I came up and put my arms around the two of them only to be met with a push from Inara and a stern "NO." She did not like me infringing on her daddy time I guess. I did it a second time and had the same results. I loved it! I think it's so cute when kids do this because they want their daddy all to themselves. I totally get it.

Bedtime has been a challenge now that the daddy stage has started. Shawn put her to bed a couple nights in a row and faced a battle. In the past, we have laid her in bed, rubbed her back and hair for a short bit, said our good-byes, and left the room with no problem. Not this week. The second daddy leaves the room, Inara stands up and screams for him to come back. So Shawn figured out that he needs to stay in the room until she falls asleep. He sits in the rocking chair right next to her crib so she can see him. One night she still kept getting up even with daddy sitting in the rocker right next to her. So he figured out she wanted daddy to hold her. Althought it made for a long bedtime process, Shawn said he loved it because she's not one to cuddle very often, so it felt so awesome to hold her and rock her to sleep. Wednesday night when I put her to sleep and today at naptime, Inara struggled a bit because she kept standing up in the crib, pointing to the rocking chair, and saying "Daddy?" I have had to explain to her mommy was here for her, and daddy was working. Today, every time she stood up and asked for Shawn and I replied, "Daddy's at work," she responded with the saddest, most pathetic "oh" as if I had just squashed her dream or something. It takes at least 5 or 6 times of softly asking for daddy that she gets that he's not coming in to see her off to sleep. It's one of the sweetest moments to see. She really loves her daddy and misses him lots. It's a good thing they are having a father-daughter day tomorrow. I know she will love having him all to herself. (Mommy is excited too because I have a whole day all to myself. I've forgotten what that is like. Hope I can enjoy myself without my shadow in tow.)